Self-promotion…

This little side bar is a photoshop document about 2.5″ x 10″ tall that I’ll have displayed at my booth in Tucson. I just love the fun things you can do with Photoshop, even the simple ones, like this. One of my dreams is to be able to make really really cool things with Photoshop. I don’t know what I’d do with them but I really admire that skill set in people. I just don’t have the time to really learn all of the effects. Even something as simple as this took me a good half hour or more, but that doesn’t count that I had to learn how to use my scanner.

I feel kind of funny putting things like this up but I think that it’s a good idea for credibility…whether that’s an illusion or not. Yes, in an ideal world my work should speak for itself. BUT, it doesn’t hurt to give a litte nudge until the day comes when I’ve established myself more. Yes? I used to ‘self-promote’ more and was a lot more vocal and that served it’s purpose in some regards. It just stopped feeling ok though. What a strange mix it is to make your living being creative and have to promote and sell. I would bet that the percentage of people selling their art for a living struggle with that…and if they don’t, I bet they did when they were first getting started. I’ll go out on a limb to predict that 99% of people selling their art would love nothing better than to just create and not have anything to do with sales.

I’ve always encouraged people to write articles to ‘get their name out there’ and I have to believe that it is a good thing. I think it’s a better thing if you can do it on a regular basis. However, I will be honest and say the time and work that goes into it does not yield an immediate return, dollar or otherwise. My sales have increased in the last six months but I think it has more to do with my ads in various magazines rather than the articles I’ve written or bee included in. Though, I would still do more if I knew what to write about and where to submit because I do like writing. I take that back. I love writing my blog. I like having the finished product of an article. Writing of articles, to me, and photographing, is tedious. But what a cool feeling of accomplishment to finish one and know that someone wants it.

I would probably write more if I wasn’t such a chicken about the submission process. It’s really no big deal. I just don’t like rejection…but who does? Didn’t I just write about ‘no pain, no gain?’ Hm. Tucson (this week) is my last show until September so writing should hopefully kick back into gear for those inbetween months. I have so many ideas, I just need to decide if I want to do them.